Entoptic hallucination

publish #mediareview Opened 2024-07-05. Related to Psychedelics, Musings on everything else.

Review of https://psychedelic-information-theory.com/Entoptic-Hallucination

Summary

Article uses a lot of jargon I’m unfamiliar with. Some key terms:

• Entoptic hallucinations: Originate from outside the eye (hence “ent-optic”). Somewhere between the eye and cortex.
  • These are like, hallucinations of geometry, kaleidoscope stuff, and fractal recursion.
• Eidetic hallucinations: Originate within the cortex and midbrain.
  • These are like, hallucinations of a childhood memory or friend.

Makes a lot of sense imo to distinguish between those types of hallucinations.

Physical pressure on the eyes/optical nerves drives entoptic hallucinations, but not eidetic hallucinations. “Hallucinations” are also known here as “phosphenes”. The article covers 3 types:

• Pressure
• Flicker
• Kinetic (like when you bump your head — seeing stars)

Flicker phosphenes can be induced by hallucinogens that trigger brain pulse activity(?) within certain wavelengths(?).